The international nuclear fusion project known as ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor), meaning "the way" in Latin, is based on the 'tokamak' concept of magnetic confinement, in which the plasma is contained in a doughnut-shaped vacuum vessel. Text: Wikipedia Photo: AFP

In Pic: The model of the reactor of the future ITER.

The tokamak is one of several types of magnetic confinement devices, and is one of the most-researched candidates for producing controlled thermonuclear fusion power. Photo: Wikipedia

A tokamak device uses a magnetic field to confine a plasma in the shape of a torus. Photo: AFP

In Pic: A view of the toroidal chamber-magnetic (Tokamak) of the Joint European Torus (JET) at the Culham Science Centre.

Achieving a stable plasma equilibrium requires magnetic field lines that move around the torus in a helical shape. Photo: AFP

Such a helical field can be generated by adding a toroidal field (traveling around the torus in circles) and a poloidal field (traveling in circles orthogonal to the toroidal field). Photo: AFP

In a tokamak, the toroidal field is produced by electromagnets that surround the torus, and the poloidal field is the result of a toroidal electric current that flows inside the plasma. Photo: AFP

This current is induced inside the plasma with a second set of electromagnets. Photo: Wikipedia

The fuel-a mixture of deuterium and tritium, two isotopes of hydrogen-is heated to temperatures in excess of 150 million degrees Celsius forming a hot plasma. Photo: AFP

The temperature within the gigantic machine will, therefore, reach 10 times the temperature at the core of the Sun. Photo: AFP

Strong magnetic fields will be used to keep the plasma away from the walls, since no solid material could withstand the extremely high temperature of the plasma. Photo: AFP

The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (Iter), based at the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) research center of Cadarache in Saint-Paul-lès-Durance, was set up by the EU, which has a 45 percent share, China, India, South Korea, Japan, Russia and the US to research a clean and limitless alternative to dwindling fossil fuel reserves. Photo: Reuters

India will be one of the significant creators of the Tokamak which will weigh 23,000 tons-as heavy as three Eiffel Towers-with a plasma volume of 840 cubic metres. Photo: AFP

The main feature of the 180 hectare ITER site in Cadarache, southern France, is a man-made level 42 hectare platform that would be 1 kilometre long and 400 metres wide, and compares in size to 60 soccer fields. Photo: AFp

Beginning December 2015, the first of the ITER cryostat's components will arrive on site from India. Photo: AFP

ITER project ranks as the most ambitious science endeavors of our time. Building began in 2010 in France where 34 nations are collaborating to realize the ITER project's First Plasma in November 2020. Photo: AFP